#constitution
- Abrogation — The action of abrogating and its result; the official, total or partial annulment of the legal validity of a regulatory act (law, decree, regulation) by a subsequent legal provision.
- Allegiance — A highly rare learned term designating a solemn obligation of loyalty, fidelity, devotion, or political allegiance manifested by a citizen or subject toward their sovereign or state. Structurally, the word functioned as an early neological adaptation from the English language (allegiance) found in isolated translations of constitutional texts, later completely replaced by equivalent terms.
- Amendment — A formal modification, correction, addition, or deletion made to a legislative text, contract, motion, or treaty under debate or already approved. It represents an essential legal instrument through which the initial structure of an official document is adapted, polished, or expanded without canceling the core text, but rather refining its applicability.
- To fine — To penalize someone with a monetary fine due to a breach of a law, regulation, or misdemeanor; in a legislative and political context, it means to modify, formalize, correct, or improve an official text, bill, or constitution through an amendment. In a technical and agricultural sense, it describes the action of improving the quality of acidic or degraded soil by adding mineral amendments.
- Amendment — A formal proposal to modify, add to, delete from, or rephrase a legislative text, a bill, a contract, or an article of a constitution, which is under debate or already adopted by a competent authority. In a technical and agronomic sense, the term denotes a mineral or organic substance incorporated into the soil to improve its physicochemical qualities, such as correcting acidity.
- Amnestying — Having the power, faculty, or quality of granting amnesty; a statutory act, decree, or sovereign political authority that produces the legal effects of an amnesty. In legal theory, it describes the specific character of a clemency law that extinguishes criminal action and symbolically annuls the execution of sentences set by courts.
- Amnesty — A sovereign legal act adopted by the supreme legislative body (Parliament) through which criminal liability for a committed offense, the execution of the pronounced sentence, or the consequences of the conviction are removed. This mechanism of public clemency extinguishes criminal action at any stage of the trial and erases the criminal record for the targeted offenses, operating in rem upon the deed and legal profile.
- Early elections — The plural form for actions, payments, administrative decisions, or events executed or settled before the officially established due date. In a political context, the term most frequently denotes early parliamentary elections organized prematurely, before the end of the normal constitutional mandate, following a government crisis or the dissolution of the legislature.
- Unconstitutional — Contravening a state's Constitution, violating the fundamental law, or failing to comply with officially established constitutional norms and principles; unconstitutional. In a legal sense, the term describes ordinances, normative acts, government decisions, or administrative measures declared null and void by the Constitutional Court due to their legal non-compliance.
- Anti-constitutionalism — A doctrinal current, political attitude, or legal doctrine opposing the principles of constitutionalism, challenging the authority, supremacy, or legitimacy of the fundamental law or of constitutional barriers imposed on state power. In a political science sense, it describes authoritarian theories or regimes promoting executive power concentration and the subordination of the judiciary, while ignoring the core rules of constitutional democracy.
- Unconstitutionality — The character or state of being unconstitutional; the structural non-compliance of a law, ordinance, or administrative decision in relation to the imperative norms of the Constitution. The finding and declaration of this state belongs exclusively to the Constitutional Court, resulting in the suspension or definitive annulment of the respective legal act.
- Anti-monarchical — Opposing monarchy as a form of government, the royal institution, or the sovereign ruling a state; an adherent of a republic or other political systems that exclude the hereditary transmission of power. In a structural sense, it describes revolutionary movements, ideological manifestos, public speeches, or parties oriented toward abolishing kingdoms and establishing civil control.
- Anti-monarchist — A person, activist, or theorist who opposes monarchy as a form of government and the institution of the crown, actively campaigning for the abolition of royalty and the establishment of a republican or democratic regime; as an adjective, it describes any action, group, or doctrine oriented toward challenging hereditary sovereignty. In a structural sense, it represents the advocate of full civil control over state executive power.
- Anti-national — Contrary to the fundamental interests of a nation, a people, or a sovereign state; a policy, ideology, treason, or public behavior that harms national independence, culture, or security. In a structural and legal sense, it describes executive actions, undermining discourses, or international treaties considered abusive or contrary to the patriotic interest.
- Antiparliamentarism — A doctrine, attitude, or ideological current that condemns and rejects parliamentarism as a form of political organization and state governance. This structural phenomenon is based on the idea that parliaments are inefficient, corrupt, or incapable of solving national crises, instead promoting corporatist, technocratic, or autocratic systems where decision-making is concentrated at the executive level.
- Anti-royalist — Opposed to royalty, monarchy, or government systems led by a king; a proponent of anti-royalism or republicanism. As an adjective, it describes demonstrations, writings, political parties, or doctrines focused on eliminating crown privileges and replacing the monarchy with a democratic state form. As a noun, it denotes a person actively fighting to establish or maintain a republic over a monarchy.
- Anti-republican — Opposed to the republic as a form of government, to republican principles, or to a party named Republican. In a constitutional and historical sense, it describes discourses, factions, or doctrines that support the restoration of monarchy or the establishment of an authoritarian regime that eliminates the separation of powers and popular sovereignty, instead promoting hereditary privileges or autocracy.
- Anti-republicanism — A doctrine, attitude, or political orientation based on opposition to the republic and to republican principles of governance. This ideological current challenges the legitimacy of representative democracy, popular sovereignty, and the abolition of monarchy, often campaigning for the restoration of royal dynasties, the preservation of aristocratic privileges, or the establishment of forms of autocracy and state absolutism.
- Anti-state — Directed against the state, its administrative structures, sovereignty, constitutional order, or fundamental institutions of power; subversive, hostile to political and state organization. In criminal law, the term describes clandestine actions, plots, or acts of sabotage aimed at destabilizing legitimate authority and the proper functioning of the state apparatus.
- Siege — A form of prolonged military action consisting of surrounding and isolating a fortress, city, or fortified position by an army, with the purpose of blocking supplies, communications, and reinforcements, thereby forcing the garrison's surrender or facilitating a decisive assault. In a legal and political sense, the term refers to a state of siege, an exceptional measure decreed by authorities in case of imminent danger to national security.